The Scam Stopper Report

Internet Scams and the Charlatans Behind Them

2006-08-11T09:31:00.000+00:00

by Jim Pretin

If you’ve ever been interested in making money on the internet, then at some point you’ve probably visited your favorite search engine and typed in one of the following phrases: “Make Money” – “Work From Home” – “Get Rich Online.” And, you’ve encountered some deliciously interesting results.

My personal favorites are the websites that have a collage of a husband and wife living their lives blissfully. One picture shows them holding each other lovingly. Another picture shows them playing tennis on their own private court. The next photo shows them standing in front of their private mansion inside of a gated community as they point to the home as if to say to you “Look at how big this thing is! With a house this size we must be telling the truth!” I especially like the pictures that show the lucky couple on their yacht, sailing in the Pacific, holding up a fish they caught that’s not even half as large as the lie they’re telling you about how they can teach you to make millions on the internet if you just fill out the email form on their website so they can begin sending you informative tidbits about making money that will “change your life.”

So with fervent anticipation, you fill out the email form on their website, and an autoresponder begins sending you a series of emails, usually spread 24 hours apart, about how this “revolutionary new system” has changed their lives and the lives of others they’ve recruited into their business. As you’re reading the email, you start to ask yourself, “Hmmm….I wonder what the heck this business actually is. The website doesn’t say what the business is, and the email doesn’t say what the business is….I wonder how these wonderful people are lining their pockets with so much cash?”

By the time they’ve sent you the fifth email, you’re so excited that you simply can’t hold out any longer, so you order their program, and then a few days later you receive a package in the mail. What do you find inside? You find books and/or CD’s telling you how you can get rich online if you set up the same kind of website they did that tells people that they can get rich online if they purchase the same scam you just did. I love it when this happens.

Don’t get me wrong, some of these websites do actually have a legitimate service for which they want to train you so that you can resell it, such as being a vitamin distributor, or teaching people about internet marketing, or, my personal favorite, hosting and inviting people to Christian mentor conferences (I love that one). Yes, there are a slew of defrauders in cyberspace who actually try to convince people how they can “Get rich with Christian mentor conferences.” Jeez, if only I had thought of that. Here I am working 10 hours a day with a legitimate company, all the while I could’ve been cashing in on those hot Christian mentor conferences.

But, most of the time, there is no legitimate product or service whatsoever, and when there is, they’re usually like the stuff I’ve already mentioned – items or services that no one needs or wants, things that aren’t practical and don’t make any sense. So, these charlatans have a very simple approach – they set up a convincing sales pitch, they keep pushing it by bombarding you with emails until you’re mouth is watering, then you place your order and they send you a business venture that is unremarkable or a waste of your time.

I’m also a big fan of the Multi-Level-Marketing (MLM) scams that are pervading the internet these days. Don’t you just adore these cute little MLM sycophants who call you at the dinner hour from a galaxy far, far away (I live in New Jersey, and I once got a call from someone in London, England, asking me if I wanted to team up with him and become part of his MLM campaign)? You’ve probably come across these MLM companies on the internet before. They have this thing called a “downline” where you recruit people to join the business to sell some sort of newfangled product or device, and those people then recruit people, and the recruits of the recruits then recruit more recruits, until you have the entire population of planet Earth and half of the population of Jupiter in your downline, and you get a percentage of all of their sales. The closer the recruit is to you in your downline, the higher the commission percentage you get. For the recruits of the recruits of the recruits of the recruits, you get a smaller percentage of their sales, roughly 0.0000000000001%.

The IRS is not a big fan of MLM’s as they are often scams, and often there’s no way you can make money if you’re at the bottom of a downline that consists of 30 or 40 people. It’s the guys at the top, the ones who own the MLM, that make the real money, while you order the program and then make only a couple of sales; but since the owners of the company have recruited so many people into their program, a few sales apiece from thousands and thousands of recruited sales reps adds up to a substantial amount.

So, the best advice you can extract from this reading is to only become involved with internet companies that offer a legitimate product or service. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Jim Pretin is the proprietor of http://www.forms4free.com, a service that helps programmers make simple email forms for websites.

Article Source: Articles Galore

Exposing PIPEX

2006-08-04T14:15:00.000+00:00

PIPEX supply broadband and rated tenth (just above demon) in the August 2006 WHICH? review of ADSL providers. They also supply other services and have used thie spending powers to obtain smaller ISPs and company names. However it is the story of thier use of two smaller names that rises the issue here. As WebFusion (the hosting company) they attempt to trick costomers into signing over to 123-reg also held by PIPEX. Sneaky. This is how they do it. The target of this scam appears to be limited to customers with their own domain names not held by PIPEX. Customers purchasing a VPS (Virtual Private Server) are leaned upon heavily to purchase a domain name via thier systems. However hidden almost totally is the option to use your own. If you choose this option you will be sent an email telling you to point your domain to thier name servers (owned and operated in the name of another company owned by PIPEX). They also use the DNS system to look up who your registrar is and they tell you (one assumes they think you might have difficulty coping with this).

Primary Server Hostname : ns.hosteurope.com Primary Server Netaddress : 212.67.202.2 Secondary Server Hostname : ns2.hosteurope.com Secondary Server Netaddress : 212.67.203.246

A name server is simply a computer that tells you where to find the site that has (domain) the name. You need a minumum of two which should be at two different physical locations. Generally shared hosting of all levels right up to and including VPS and beyond to managed hosting and even co-location is supported by the ISP providing Domain Name Servers to ease entry into the DNS system. However, when Matt B signed up he had to wait four days to get this email and as he was unable to do so immeadietly left it a few days. After all it should not effect the rest of the set up process as the root IP address could still be used for set-up administrtion. Matt set the domain name servers (two) and waited a few days with the ability to access his domain. In the mean time he had gotten another email that said:

Login Details: Your IP address is https://212.241.196.217 To manage your websites, configure applications and examine web statistics, access your Plesk Control Panel at https://212.241.196.217:8443 Your username is root Your server password is gHSXDbNx To manage and monitor resources, reboot/backup or restore your VPS Server, access your Virtuozzo Control Panel at https://212.241.196.217:4643 Your username is administrator Your server password is gHSXDbNx

Matt tried to log in with these details. However, he discoved the first in what was to be a long line of failures. The login attempts failed. He emailed back and asked what was going on. He waited all day for an answer but none came. LAte in the afternoon the next day an email arrived. It directed him to phone a number for the other side of the country. After spending a long while on hold he was told that the usernames were wrong and that he needed to use different usernames. He was told these and was able to log in. The system propmted him to change passwords and enter the domain name (the one he entered when he signed up and that they had emailed him about). He did all this and after filling in forms for an hour was able to use the control panel which is the standard control panel called PLESK. PLESK allows you to set up new domains and subdomains and his sign up had a license for a very generouse limit of domains. More than Matt felt he could ever use. Matt naturally expected to be able to add domains and subdomains to his server. He was able to add them and this was all good. However he was unable to use them. He email PIPEX and the next day they replied:

Apologies for the missing dns record, this is now created and your website should start working within 24-48 hours after dns propogation has taken place. Chris Day, WebFusion Support

However the second domain he had added and the sub domains did not work. He wrote to them to ask if this was a limit with PLESK. While waiting for a reply Matt spoke to someone from RACKSPACE who also use plesk. The salesman had never heard of such a problem and assured him that thier technicians would write a fix themselves if such a problem existed. Matt assumed therefore that this was a set-up error. However the replys became increasingly shirty and condisending and the con started. It was now 10 days since the purchase and so far the product had been impossibble to use. (NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE!) The next day he was told.

Typically when a domain is oredered (sic) with a vps the domain is registered by ourselves and the dns record is set up automatically, in this case it appears the domain was allready registered and you changed the nameservers as described in the welcome email, alongside this a dns zone file needed creating, this is not obvious from the welcome email. We are currently working with the marketing department to improve the quality of this welcome email. Chris Day WebFusion Support

Matt tried to find out more about this file issue. He was not aware of this being an issue with any other ISP and as a Managing Director of an IT compnay felt he would probably know about such an issue.

I have been liaising with our technical support team about the problems you have been having. The VPS account you have is problem free and is working fine. All you need is to move your domain names into an account with a domain management company. You can use our company by going to www.123-reg.co.uk or any domain management company. Once you move your domain names in their, you can change all nameservers etc. through the control panel. The difficulty you are having is because your domain name are not managed through a domain management company and I am sure you will find it easier once this is done. The VPS account is fine. If you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to get in contact with me, Best Wishes Naveed Riasat PIPEX Hosting Customer Services

This seems all well and good untill you realise that there is no such thing as a "domain management company" - Google the term and you will get nothing of worth. Matt could see no reason to move from godaddy with whome he was already able to change domain name server information as required and had infact already done so. In fact you can not "own" a domain name without an ICANN or Nominet registration (depending on the TLD you wih to use) which makes you a registrar. All such domainn name sellers are registered or resell for some one who is registered. Making Naveed Riasat's comments utter non-sense. When Matt objected to being treated like a fool the house of cards fell down.

The VPS system is a server, DNS and its configuration are dealt with before the domain hits the server. This means the domain can be controled by our systems or by any other domain name host. It cant be automated totally since some domain names wont be on our system and more importantly legally we are not allowed to make changes to DNS information with out an official request from the owner of the domain (either through a control panel or fax with signature). Nigel Cowie, WebFusion Support

Matt was quite supprised as he had given such permission when he added the domain via the PLESK control panel.

I understand that you have had difficulty with the configuration. I feel it important to point out that the system you have signed up to is not managed and so you are the administrator of the server. if the sites go down we would not know about it unless you informed us (although the hardware is monitored). If this is not what you thought you have singed up for I'd recomend contacting customer services with details of your issues. I'm sure you understand that ther eare (sic) complexities in automation especially when control over specifics involves integration between many seperate companies which in general would be competitors. Even if the VPS could be configured to amend details to suit your transfer needs we would recieve an equal amount of complaints for removing the functionality to make the change manually. Many customers point parts of a domain to a vps and the other records elsewhere etc. complaints should be directed to customer services, we are a professional company and will not affect your data in any way regardless of your complaints. I would encourage constructive feed back to be made in this way so our company can try to improve our service to you the customer. Issues with servers are inevitable, your webspace could be affected by something you do, something a hacker does, something failing (hardware) etc. We always do our best to resolve issues asap. Our ticket queue is currently very small and I couldnt see any other open incidents on your ...issue, please re-send the issue on that and I will do my best to find the solution for you asap. Nigel Cowie WebFusion Support

Yes we had trouble following the point too. It seems that Nigel is suggesting that Matt is too stupid to use a VPS and that the problems with the domain zone files are his fault Matt assumed that he would be required to send an email request for the zone file to be added to the domain name servers for each domain and sub domain. Changes that Nigel had just claimed could only be made if the istruction be given "either through a control panel or fax with signature" Matt queried this and object to the tone of the previouse message. He also objected to the attempted con-trick where they tried to get him to move all his domains to them so that the DNS system would work. The answer came back:

Please find the answers to your questions below... To make a domain point to your vps you need to perform the following simple steps. 1) buy the required domain name (with any domain hosting company) 2) point the domain name to the Domain name hosting companies (the one your purchased the domain name from) name servers (please note, we only add zone files to our name servers for the orriginal main domain name). 3) create a zone file (either manually or request support to do it) on the name server which directs all records to your vps. (this would be the name server you pointed the above domain name to) 4) add the domain to plesk with the settings you require. 24 hours after the changes on the name servers and the domain name have been completed the domain should point to the vps and the vps webserver (apache or IIS) will direct traffic to your public folders for the website you set up. Nigel Cowie, WebFusion Support

The problem that was not being addressed was how a zone file was to be created on a computer that Matt had no access to. It was begining to appear that PIPEX did not know the answer and they had therefore misadvertised what was available by promoting the fact that the well known control panel PLESK was installed as standard. It was not unreasonable to assume that automated control over DNS records, zone files and name servers would be included in the package as it is with all other hosting ISPs. But Nigel was not finished in his rant this time.

Please also note that webfusion are not a domain hosting company, we are a web hosting company. For more information on the scope of support for your platform please see the link below... http://support.webfusion.co.uk/view.cgi?id=655&menuopen=2,7 Nigel Cowie, WebFusion Support

It was now clear that this Nigel was not going to answer any questions and was infact dodging the issue compleatly. In addition to ignoring the objections to the tone of his messages Nigel chose to talk down to Matt and treat him like an idiot to mask his lack of a good answer to the rip-off trick being attempted by PIPEX.

The management of the DNS information and how it works can easily be located on the internet, if you search google.co.uk, or view http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page for general education on dns and its configuration.

Having mentioned at length his level of education and possition with his company Matt was extreamly offended by this remark. It was now cristal clear that PIPEX were going to attempt to make him believe that the domain names needed to be managed by 123-reg in order to use the PIPEX VPS. They would then beable to charge him what-ever they wished to renew the domains and potentially charge him a great deal to get control of them back. (Namsco limited are also famouse for a similar trick which they used when they purchased Simply.com a while back). Not wishing to be tacken for a fool nor wishing to pay secondry "taxes" for the VPS system Matt knew he was going to need to start demanding a refund. However as the email ended it was clear that PIPEX were going to attempt to use the contract terms to terminate the account without giving a refund.

We have attempted to be polite and informative in our responses to you however your replies back have been offensive and far from constructive. I will now forward this message to my team leader for review under the terms and conditions for abuse. Kind regards, Nigel Cowie WebFusion Support PIPEX

Well, Matt knew that a refund was going to be a slim liklihood and was only pleased that he had purchased via credit card. This gives Matt added insurence protection under British Law. It remains to be seen some 13 days after the purchase if a refund will be forthcoming. The odds of obtaining interest to cover the costs of using the credit card are slim and compensation for being messed about are extreamly unlikly. UK Law needs to toughen up on ISPs who are currently a law unto themselves.

Namesco Limited - "The scams uncovered".

2005-03-28T16:37:00.000+00:00

http://www.names.co.uk/acquisitions.html
"Recently, we have acquired a flurry of companies including SmartChoiceNet, AcademyNet, Namesweb Limited and Simply.com Limited with domain databases ranging from 300 to 92,000. The terms for acquisition have been different in all cases and we are very flexible in the way we can acquire a business - be it a Sole Trader, Partnership, Limited Company or other entity."

Namesco first came to my attention when they purchased the registrar Simply.Com the sale of which was quite a surprise to a good few people especially as Namesco are only a reseller and not a certified registrar. Simply traded on the good reputation it had built up and did a lot of trade in co.uk domain names which it offered at a good low price.

Every directory that mentions simply does so with words of praise. This now acts as a magnet to the skin that is all that is left of Simply. Users can still purchase the domains at the Simply.Com price but what happens next is very strange. The domain ends up with MelbourneIT an Australian registrar and the company that Namesco resell for.

When the renewal time arrives a simple matter-of-fact email goes out and the price is increased from the Simply.Com price by more than 122%. Users will then discover that they will have to pay £10 (about $21) to release the domain for transfer plus pay the renewal fee at the new company. This is often more expensive than staying.

The "Namesco Group" do not warn you of of this possibility (unfair practice but not necessarily illegal) and refuse to enter into negotiation with you on the subject. At time of writing the author has yet to get a straightforward answer from Namesco on this matter.

The company in question is apparently "Names.co Internet plc" but the author has been unable to find any public records or stock information on them. This leads one to the conclusion that perhaps this is a bogus name, company or front. If so then the author has a giant sized scoop in his lap and that doesn't happen very often so other possibilities were explored.

In the investigation one name that came up a lot was that of Jody Sanders who styled him/her-self as a "Software Engineer/Systems Analyst". We can not be sure what the exact connection of this person is to the company but the author deeply suspected this was the company until finding some stock records for the company and the purchase of Larchland Ltd which lead to other more interesting details and disproving the fake company theory it also transpires that this public Limited Company is not listed because it has re-formed as a Limited Company called Namesco (it's current incarnation) but also to "Names.co Internet plc today changes its name to Triple Plate Junction plc and is to remain listed on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange" which is a confusing move at best but it seems more of an action to carry over the stock value to this "gold exploration company". Did you follow all that?

Also swallowed up in this constant mish-mash is/was a company called "Webcall.com Limited".

Whatever else it is that Namesco do they purchase other companies and then use the customer base to extend their reach. This is a normal and ethical business practice but it seems at time of writing that this company uses the good name and customer base of purchased companies to slam these customers into the inflated prices waiting behind the scenes. Whatever else is going on Namesco Limited with a domain database the size of 92,000 they could earn themselves at least £920,000 in £10 transfer fees alone and by raising prices by 122% who knows how much they stand to earn from their ability to control that many customers.

The simply website www.simplynames.net/about/index.shtml shows the contact address which is no longer the offices of simply.com but of Namesco:

Namesco Limited
Britannia Court,
5 Moor Street,
Worcester,
England. WR1 3DB
United Kingdom

So it could be argued that a realy suspiciouse and sceptical customer might be able to work it out. Interestingly this address is the same office that the company Phase8 and others trade from:

http://www.phase8.com/contact.shtml
Britannia Court
5 Moor Street
Worcester
England
WR1 3DB

http://www.net2.co.uk/contact-net2.htm
net2,
Britannia Court,
5 Moor Street,
Worcester,
England.
WR1 3DB

http://www.e-comshops.com/contact.html
c/o Phase8
Britannia Court
5 Moor Street
Worcester
England
WR1 3DB
United Kingdom

These also give the same address
http://www.cheapnames.co.uk/
http://www.123domainnames.co.uk/contactus.htm
http://www.namesweb.co.uk/contact.html
http://auction.names123.com/info/privacy.php

Applicable Laws

All is not lost if you live in the UK as there are a number of laws which you may be able to invoke in your quest to avoid paying the tricksters.

PRICES ACT 1974 and 1975
TRADE DESCRIPTIONS ACT 1968
MISREPRESENTATION ACT 1967
SALE OF GOODS ACT 1979
SALE AND SUPPLY OF GOODS 1994
SALE OF GOODS (AMENDMENT) ACT 1995
SUPPLY OF GOODS AND SERVICES ACT 1982
UNFAIR CONTRACT TERMS ACT 1977

Report the Scam

If you feel that what has happened is a con or you have lost out to similar bad practice then you should also contact http://www.ripofftipoff.net/e_cons.htm and hopefully save a few other people from falling into the same trap as yourself.

Whatever you do and whoever you tell you should raise the alarm when a you have been the victim of a scam.

You local Citizen Advice or Government-Backed Trading Standards Group may also be able to provide support.

Introduction

2004-09-16T10:21:00.000+00:00

The Scam Stopper Report is a collaborative effort by a small group of IT industry workers who seem to spend a lot of time dealing with the World Wide Web.

We have noticed that the general public is getting taken in by some alarmingly foolish lies, tricks, scams and acts of miss-information.

Our hope is that in publishing this report people will tell their friends, family and work colleagues and with just a little more truth getting about these dangerous and often expensive myths can be exposed for what they are - lies!

A quick run down of the usual suspects

Out Of Africa - An email arrives (usually from Africa) and some honest sounding person would like your help to embezzle large amounts of cash (for a good cause) all you need to do is pay out to cover a few costs... (you pay up and never see them again).

Get bigger / better / slimmer / richer / smarter NOW! - The product changes but the scam is as old as the hills. This one is just the old quack remedies scam with a new brighter face. An email trying to sell you a bottle of coloured water. Buy this for just [insert large sum here] and be the next great Romeo. Also in this category are the schemes where you pay a "small" amount to get rich quick.

Cheap XYZ no questions - The old false hope scam where the hidden costs soon mount up. Other versions include the "free" holiday or computer.

Drugs without subscription - While this is not strictly speaking a scam you would be wise to wonder why these drugs are so cheap. Sometimes they are phonies sometimes they are stolen but always they are unsafe.

Variations on the Pyramid Scheme - The only winners with these nasty tricks are the people who started it. On average for every "winner" there will be at least 8 losers. whole communities have been impoverished by these things resulting in shops and businesses closing and jobs being lost. It can take decades for a full recovery to take place.

Global Lottery Scams - "Congratulations [name] you have one [a heck of a lot of money] from the lottery you have never heard of". The fact you never purchased a ticket should have been the first clue but the fact that you must now pay a set of "processing fees" to get the cash should send you running.

There are hundreds if not thousands of variants on these basic scams. Remember folks "if it's to good to be true, then it probably isn't". Being just a little cynical can save you thousands.

While these are indeed nasty scams worse still are the ones with just a little truth peppered in to make the bate that bit more tempting.

The Spam Scam - "We guarantee top ranking in Google, AOL, MSN, Yahoo etc.". The sad fact is that there is not a single person in all of Google who'd be willing to do more than offer some general tips on general improvement.

How is it then that these companies can offer so much and all for just $2500 a year?

Just recently I was sitting in an office and happened to take a call from a man selling website promotion. He proudly directed me to type a few words into Google and there in the top 10 was the site as predicted but all was not as it seemed

In actual fact this "site" was nothing more than a carefully created "splash" page designed to trick search engines it was linked to about 20 other almost identical splash pages.

This trick is known as Search Engine Spam. The man was trying to sell me Spam. A quick read of the Google terms of service will tell you that this kind of thing is likely to get you removed from their listings. It is classed as cheating.

Yahoo is a similar story. People try to sell me a Number 1 position in Yahoo but Yahoo will only guarantee to look at your site for your money. At the end of the day your placement in the index of Yahoo is at the whim of the indexer. All your money will buy is something you can do your self In about ten minuets (the filling out of a form).

Search engines are a law unto themselves regarding submissions and anyone who tells you they have them all "sussed" or trys to tell you that you are guaranteed anything is pulling a fast one.